Secretary takes over town manager’s Twitter account, makes a splash with constituents

Ioanna Raptis | Portsmouth Herald

Ioanna Raptis | Portsmouth Herald

Suzanne Esposito, the secretary to Kittery's town manager, is the creative voice behind @TownOfKittery, the town manager’s Twitter account.

By Alex LaCasse, Portsmouth Herald•January 12, 2018 1:04 pm

Suzanne Esposito is like a Swiss Army knife in the Kittery town offices.

As the secretary to the town manager, she manages several in-office functions and is the point-person for ongoing town projects to help economize the schedule of Town Manager Kendra Amaral so she can focus on her core functions running the town.

And there is one more role in which Esposito thrives: tweeting.

Esposito is the creative voice behind @TownOfKittery, the town manager’s Twitter account. As such, Esposito is responsible for disseminating official communications through the social media service, part of the town’s effort to deliver as much pertinent information regarding town news and functions for residents to access as possible.

“The Twitter account is probably one of the more exciting and fun parts of the job, I get to be more of myself,” said Esposito. “We’re trying to push out a lot of information and answer questions before they’re asked. If they need pressing information or they’re wondering about something, they can usually go to our Twitter and we’re trying to get the information out quickly and efficiently and keep it fun.”

Esposito said the town manager account has helped promote the relatively new town website and has given the opportunity for her to create a new, more personable, voice for residents to interact with the town administration.

“We’ve been working really hard to roll the new website out and create a new web presence with more information and a little bit more of a voice than we had before,” said Esposito. “That’s been a big endeavor, not only rolling it out, but getting people used to going to it, knowing where all the information is and enjoying it.”

Esposito, who grew up on Hampton Beach, joined the staff at Town Hall in October and before accepting the position she worked at real estate firms in Massachusetts and Texas doing marketing and social media promotion. She said though she spent time in Kittery growing up, her position has afforded her the chance to get to know all corners of the town on a more intimate basis.

“I’ve made it a point to spend even more time here, so that involves a lot of eating out, talking to people; walking around and exploring all the parts I didn’t know about,” said Esposito. “I want to highlight the best of the community; the best places to eat, the best places to stay, why we’re so fun and why our community is so vibrant.”

Esposito said the secret to crafting fun tweets in an official municipal capacity is making followers feel they have a direct channel to communicate with the administrators of their community.

“The main points I want to hit are I want people to know that we’re listening, when they talk about it on Facebook, when they come into meetings, when they come into my office,” she said. “I’m listening to what they care about, what they want to hear, so I’m pushing those things out. Also, a whole lot of GIFs, because who doesn’t love a good GIF? We love when people interact with us. I love when people come to the meetings or when they find a great spot and want to tell us about it, it’s great.”